INVESTIGATIONS: Loyalty in the GPO

Operating as a one-man subcommittee, Joe McCarthy last week picked Up an old scent from the House Committee on Un-American Activities, subpoenaed some new witnesses, and came up with a striking instance of the flabbiness of the Truman Administration's loyalty program.

McCarthy's principal quarry was Edward Rothschild, for 20 years a bookbinder in the vast Government Printing Office. Had Rothschild ever been a Communist? The question was highly pertinent because the GPO prints, along with its many dull governmental publications, secret military reports, and advance texts of important documents like Supreme Court decisions and the U.S. budget. Rothschild refused to answer, ducked behind the Fifth Amendment. Had he ever stolen a secret code from the office? Had he spied against the U.S.? The answers were the same—no answer. That afternoon, the GPO suspended the reticent bookbinder without pay.

Rothschild's wife Esther, who had been identified as a Communist in earlier testimony, was no more communicative. In 30-odd questions she admitted only that she was Rothschild's wife and had belonged to a parent-teachers' association.

The testimony by and about the Rothschilds took McCarthy to an obvious question: Why hadn't Rothschild been fired from the GPO long before? The FBI had a plump file on him, but he passed two loyalty screenings and stayed in his job. GPO officials explained that the loyalty board did not believe the charges, and that Rothschild himself denied under oath in 1948 that he was a Communist. Had the loyalty board called in any of the witnesses named in the FBI file? No. "It is not customary to call any witnesses except those requested by the accused." In 1951, the FBI notified the GPO that Esther Rothschild was an active Communist. Had the GPO looked into that? No. Hadn't all the information brought out by the McCarthy subcommittee been available to the loyalty board? Replied GPO's personnel director, S. Preston Hipsley: "You developed the spirit in [Rothschild] of refusal to cooperate. We did not face that, sir."